FARMVILLE, Va. – If iron sharpens iron, then there's nothing dull about Longwood women's soccer.
Powered by a two-assist day from sophomore
Danielle Toone and their first shutout of 2019, the Lancers (1-2-0) aced their third non-conference test of the season by taking down Southwestern Athletic Conference preseason favorite Howard 2-0 Monday evening at the Longwood Athletics Complex.
The win was a breakthrough on all fronts for a Lancer team in the midst of a gauntlet of a non-conference schedule in 2019. After dropping a 5-1 season opener to Atlantic 10 powerhouse VCU and hard-fought 2-0 loss to Charlotte this past Friday, Longwood righted the ship Monday by controlling the entire 90 minutes against the reigning SWAC champion Bison (1-1-0).
"It feels good to break the ice and get that first win," said head coach
Todd Dyer. "Two great goals and a shutout at home highlights that result. Even more encouraging is that we know we can play a lot better than that. Howard made it difficult, and their coaches and players deserve credit for that."
Howard entered the matchup the preseason No. 1 in the SWAC coaches poll, a position the Bison earned on the strength of last year's 8-1-1 run through conference play and three SWAC titles in the past five seasons. However, Longwood's starting defensive trio of
Tori Gagliardi,
Carrie Reaver and
Erica Sieben, stymied the Bison in the Lancer backfield and allowed just one shot on goal, which junior keeper
Madison Van Dyke grabbed en route to her first shutout of the season.
Meanwhile, Longwood's offense generated seven shots on goal of its own thanks to the connectivity of the frontline trio of Culbreath, Kupsov and Toone. Both of Longwood's goals originated with Toone, who first threaded a pass through Howard's backline to a streaking Kupsov, who corralled it and beat the Bison's Preseason All-SWAC goalkeeper Alaya Hightower for a go-ahead goal in the 22nd minute.
"In those first two games, we didn't start with as much intensity as we should have," said Toone, whose two assists already surpassed her total from her freshman campaign in 2018. "We found it a little later in both of those games, but we were definitely missing that sense of urgency. Tonight we brought a lot more of that, and we had it from the start."
Toone and the Lancers carried that urgency from whistle to whistle and saw it culminate in another strike midway through the second half, which Toone also sparked. That sequence began when the sophomore forward sprinted through Howard's backline, stopped and made a quick pass back to trailing
Madison Lockamy. Lockamy then lofted a perfect cross through the box for
Kennedy Culbreath, who one-touched it into the upper right corner for a 2-0 lead at 61:09.
"Our front line is really strong. We have a lot of speed up there, and that's something we really need to use to our advantage," Toone said. "You saw the pass from Locks [Lockamy] that set up Kennedy's goal. We know when our midfielders send in balls like that, we have a really good chance of chasing them down."
The shutout snapped an uncharacteristic two-game losing streak for the Lancers, who prior to the VCU and Charlotte losses had not dropped consecutive matches in a season since 2016. Now Longwood will have an opportunity to make it to wins in a row this Thursday, Sept. 5, when they head to Norfolk, Va., to take on Old Dominion at 7 p.m.
#GoWood
